Monkey Business As Unusual

I saw this figure in a FLGS that I frequent on trips an hour away from home as it has some of the best selection of stuff when I browse at random. I thought that it would be a great jungle build project to get to as I have so many ferns that will be on hand when I complete “Marumba Marumba! Jungle Jungle Jungle!”. The repetition of aged deadfall and exploring open space with branches/foliage seemed fun. I might go the route of the 2005 feature King Kong and put in primitive wooden palisades strapped with all sorts of human skulls or skeletons. Its always playtime with letting these things ruminate in the brain a while before committing to the build.

I considered keeping the hat but honestly I’ll be dropping it from my work since it just seems to detract from the gorilla’s distinctive skull shape and all the detail that went into the sculpt. I’ve already had a thought about where to go with other bits and bobs to sculpt additionally to the figure for interest. Magic the Gathering has been a little bit of a help in this manner.

Sitting around at dinner I’ve found that I was happily given opportunity to reuse material for hobby time. Bamboo kabob skewers are perfect stand-ins for the rickety structures and spear-like things we see in King Kong that keep the great ape at bay (as flimsy as they are would they really work?). At scale they’re about 3/4 the thickness of the bones that the figure holds so they would be rather formidable against a being that size.

Considering all this there needs to be a base for the whole thing. *cracks knuckles and leans back to kick his feet up with fingers interlaced behind his head* I got that covered. I picked up a resin disk about 55mm in diameter and 15mm tall to hold onto for some large figure in future and here it seems to be. The increase in detail for my display bases has been slowly building. I can generally get to a point and call it good with a 28mm mini throwing down a few things. This project, among a growing number, is my becoming a showcase of how crazy one can get with the environment for a mini.

I still have things that I can do yet for making jaw dropping displays but I lack time/resources/space to do so. I am in awe and envious of a Youtuber that goes by the handle Squidmar. I love his work and hate that I have clumsy hands when it comes to making the great masterpieces I see. Agh! Enough about that and back to the not-Chaos pain inflicting pointy things.

Here I’ve put down a couple layers of cork board to give variable height and will affix it with the two part epoxy JB Weld. This stuff will not be coming apart anytime soon short of heavy machinery. Its touted as being able to repair car radiators. I just need it to hold a few parts together without fear. This should be good as I do fill in work later.

No image as the last phone died with the photo onboard

In the second to last UHH I was embarrassed to see that I was featured not once, but twice for projects I had on hold. It’s no real harm but it does remind me to get off my butt and work on things from time to time. I’ll just say that this update, in my opinion, makes up for the whole debacle. I am pulling a canceled project back from the land of the dead to inadvertently give it life and call it complete.

So I thought to myself in a long monologue of statements, “Hey, I got this figure lying about I should do something with it. I should really get around to painting this sometime. This would really look cool with some color on it; I’ve got just the paint for it. I should give up on this as I don’t think I’ll get around to painting it. OK, it’s painted, now I just need an address.”

I reached out to a long time friend of mine but had no idea where to send the figure. My friend from the long long ago went radio silent and seemed to go on with their life. The mini sat in its box, ready to be sent, without attention and unmarked on a shelf with an unknown future. The future was to be as wonderful as any velveteen rabbit could hope for.

Giftmas preparation season came around again and sorting through boxes to make sure packages were set to right ensued. It was time for this little monkey to make his presence known once more. It was time to figure out who to gift it to. Thankfully it was easy to figure out as a Secret Santa was kind enough to send a goodwill figure to me.

So here we have it. A gift was given with joyful intent and a mini meant for the same purpose was given a home. The spirit of Giftmas has been made manifest and the world is happier for it.